Once more into the beach for Pauline Menczer

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It's 4 o'clock on the morning of a major event on the women's
professional surfing tour. Most of the contestants are still
sleeping. And why not? The tournament doesn't start until 9am. But
one is getting an early start.

She rolls gingerly out of bed, hampered by painful arthritis in
her elbows, wrists and fingers.

She slowly limps to the bathroom for a long, hot shower followed
by an even longer session of stretching - desperately trying to get
her body mobile before the hooter sounds on the beach to start the
first heat.

And she knows the pain won't stop until she's in the water and
the adrenaline of competition begins to flood through her
veins.

For 18 years this has been the morning ritual of Australian
surfing stalwart Pauline Menczer.

"It's probably the same feeling as [when] you've done a major
marathon," she said. "And the next day that's how stiff and sore
you are and no matter what you do you still feel stiff and sore.
That's what it's like, waking up every day like that."

Even in Menczer's greatest tour triumph, in 1993, when she
claimed her only world championship crown, she had to share the
pleasure with equal helpings of pain.

"The year I went for the world title I could barely walk but as
soon as the hooter went I was fine in the surf," she said. "But
afterwards I'd hobble back up the beach again."

Menczer rode her first wave at the age of 12 at Bronte Beach in
Sydney when her older brother Trevor's foam board broke in two on a
large wave. Trevor handed her one half and the rest is surfing
history.

Now 34, Menczer has spent more than half her life as a
professional surfer and happily claims the title of the oldest
competitor on tour.

In that time she has amassed 20 World Championship Tour
victories and eight on the World Qualifying Series.

There's only one female surfer in the world who has won more -
six-time world champion Layne Beachley.

And yet, despite her success, Menczer has not had a long-term
sponsor - an essential ingredient for life on the modern tour.

She has survived on the kindness of friends around the world who
either put her up in the spare room or let her pitch a tent in the
backyard.

The prizemoney she has won in 18 years on the tour - a little
more than $410,000 - is barely enough to cover her travel and
accommodation expenses.

"It's been really tough," she said. "That's why I didn't
qualify, I think, because for the past two years I've been making a
loss on the tour."

Menczer has grappled with the issue of sponsorship for most of
her career. She's come to the conclusion her short, stocky frame
and freckled complexion don't fit the idealised image of the
athletic blonde surfer girl the sponsors and surfing magazines
want.

"Everybody wonders why," she said. "For a long time I really
thought it was because I didn't have the look they wanted.

"But it should be about your surfing, not looks. It's crazy not
to have picked up one [a sponsor] for what I've done. Absolutely
crazy.

"But not having the sponsors, I think that's why I've won so
much because I just have to.

"I can look back on my career and go, 'Wow, I did it alone'. I
had quite an amazing career without the support."

Despite being known on tour for her positive attitude, being
dropped from the WCT tour hurts, but the shock hasn't quite hit
home.

"I'm surprised about how well I've handled it," she said. "I
thought that I would kind of lose it and the end of the year when I
didn't make it.

"I was waiting for the time I'd break down and cry and go,
'Shit, I didn't make it' but it hasn't happened yet."

But Menczer is not going to hang up the leg rope just yet. "My
surfing ability's well and truly still mixing it with the younger
girls," she said.

"As I've told people before, I don't want to give up competing
until I have my first walking stick."